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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 6:35 am
Thank you for the intricate answers, guys! c:
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:03 pm
How was divorce handled?
[when I was writing one of my characters, I couldn't find much information. :C The most I found was, 'well, it happened', but no real detail on how society saw it or deal with it]
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 9:55 pm
Divorce, or probably a little bit easier annulment (but not really, since both are complicated), was a very, very prolonged and extremely expensive process. It wasn't restricted to the extremely wealthy, but the costs associated with divorce and annulment made it impossible for those who didn't have extreme wealth to go through with a divorce. Additionally, women were highly unlikely to be granted divorce from their husbands because not only did they need to prove one of the grounds, but also other aggravating offenses by their husbands.
Divorces and annulments were tried by bishops as the laws that bind marriages are ecclesiastical law and therefore were under the jurisdiction of the church.
Here are the grounds for annulment:
1) Fraud: One or both of the parties used a name on the marriage banns/registration that wasn't their real name. However, if it was a name they were commonly known by, the marriage wouldn't be annulled. Also, if the bishop decided it was just a mistake, it wouldn't be annulled. OR Wedding promises weren't kept (ie promising to house your wife on an estate you sold, or a promised dowry not being provided), this was exceedingly rare OR the person officiating the wedding made a mistake/didn't follow the rules, also exceedingly rare
2) Incompetency: If you were 21, you could enter a marriage without parental consent, however if you were underage, a marriage is annulled if parents don't give consent. OR One or both of the parties is legally insane. That person would be locked up for life and possessions taken away if a man, though he retains his titles (and a guardian is appointed). If a woman, they were locked away and forgotten. Being legally insane taints the entire family, even the ex-spouse, so this was a terrible grounds of annulment.
3) Impotence: This must be something that one party new of at the time of the marriage, but the other was not informed. It involves proving impotency through medical exams of both parties and the man must bed his wife for three years and then prove she is still a virgin. He must not bed anyone else. And then after those three years is up, then he must prove he can't... uh... get it going even in the presence of highly skilled courtesans...
There were four grounds for divorce:
1) Adultery: A man could bring suit against his wife's lover in civil court where it must be proved that she had an affair with that lover and committed adultery. The lover must be judged guilty and then is dealt a huge fine for getting between the marriage. Then the case is taken to ecclesiastical court which was the actual divorce proceedings where using the civil court decision as evidence, a man could file for divorce. This is where the husband charged his wife (rather than her lover) with adultery and use that to request a divorce. This works for a man since it's important for a man to have a legitimate heir. It doesn't work for women because a) women just didn't have that standing in society and b) society had a 'what did it matter if a man slept around?' attitude towards men carrying on affairs since there would be no question of heirs. Therefore, only under circumstances where the man was having an affair with her sister would this be a way for a women to gain divorce, OR if she could prove extreme physical cruelty on part of her husband in conjunction to adultery (though this is extremely difficult in a society that tends to look the other way when women are being abused). Additionally, women were seen as the legal property of their husbands, so divorce tended not to be granted or even considered.
2) Impotency: This is grounds for divorce if impotency occurs after marriage. The same process is carried out as for annulment.
3) Cruelty: This would be the grounds used by women to obtain divorce, but unfortunately, it was exceedingly rare that they would even attempt to bring the case to court, let alone be able to prove their case.
4) Entering religion: If one or both of the parties intended to become a monk or nun, that was grounds for divorce, but this is also very rare because most people who enter religion tend to do so before marriage and this involves the renunciation of your physical properties and titles so it wasn't a good grounds for divorce unless you really did intend to go into religion.
There are generally three steps to divorce, mostly because the only divorces that went through were for adultery by men, so the first two were described about. The first was charging the lover with adultery, or better known as 'Criminal Conversation' or CrimCon, which was just a nice euphemism for sleeping with my wife. Then there was the bishop granting separation/"divorce" which removed all of the husband's responsibilities to his wife. The third was another really, really lengthy trial that would allow the man to remarry to produce a legitimate heir. This bill must be passed by a bishop to allow remarriage. The woman would never be able to remarry.
In both annulments and divorces, both parties would become ostracized by society and looked down upon, the woman more so than the man. Annulments and divorces brought shame on the entire family. The divorcees would be social outcasts.
Another factor, other than cost, that made divorces or annulment exceedingly rare was that bishops oversaw these proceedings and they had a vested interest in maintaining the sanctity of marriage and upholding the values of the church by refusing annulments and divorces.
For those who weren't rich, legal annulments or divorces were not an option because of the lengthy process and huge price. Therefore they had a practice called "wife-selling" which is quite literally the practice of selling your wife to the highest bidder. General lower society would recognize this as being the equivalent of divorce, but it wasn't legal under the state or church. Additionally, you wouldn't be able to legally remarry. The husband would publicly parade his wife around with a halter around her neck, waist, or arms and then would publicly auction her off. Later on, this practice would become a prosecutable crime, but during the Regency era, magistrates tended to look the other way.
I hope this answers your question! If you want some info about what happens to children in divorce, I could also type that up for you too!
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Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 11:42 am
Officially putting this here: Please create a math equation we can use to convert modern money to Sunderland money? For reference. *bats eyelashes*
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Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 11:22 am
Patmos of Endtimes Officially putting this here: Please create a math equation we can use to convert modern money to Sunderland money? For reference. *bats eyelashes*
Bank of England Inflation Calculator.
It's only up to 2012, but if you want to know what x amount of pounds in 2012 is worth today is run it through this more current inflation calculator (which is a "yesterday" inflation calculator, meaning it doesn't go back anymore than that 1940's).
I had been using this chart as a slightly outdated reference point and then using the National Archives currency converter to work forward from an income/dowry/fortune I had chosen to convert to 2005, and then a yesterday converter to convert from 2005 to 2014.
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